Archive

Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari, Modena In the vast stadium of fluorescent light, the cars look like glowing orbs of style. Raised on low platforms, each machine is given a respectful space from the others. Despite the name, this is not a museum. This is more a shrine… and everything is set up to allow visitors ...

Cheap Tuscany, Italy It’s no surprise that one of the most popular regions of Italy is also one of the most expensive. Between accommodation, food and sites, you can really burn through the euros on a trip to Tuscany. But the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way – it is ...

Ferrara, Italy It was early in the morning when the earth shook Ferrara awake. Nature has no regard for history, for architecture or for heritage. The planet is bigger than them all and it strikes indiscriminately. The day after the earthquake struck Italy’s Emilia Romagna region, at 5.9 on the richter scale, I visited the ...

Verona, Italy Until recently, my knowledge of Verona was limited purely to the many hours as a teenager being forced to study Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Any beauty in the city that could have been imagined was always tempered by the adolescent resentment of the schoolwork. To visit Verona as an adult and be free ...

Architecture of Vicenza, Italy I have one favourite architect – Ted Mosby. The problem is that he’s fictional (and that the terrible television reference was probably lost on half of you). So, I’ve been thinking for a while that I should have a real person as my favourite. After a visit to the Italian city ...

The Padua Botanic Garden, Italy There was a time when the botanical garden at Padua was the biggest in the world; when it was the greatest in the world; and when it was the only one in the world. None of those things is true these days. But like the soil in the garden that ...

Parma hams and culatello They’re hanging from the ceiling, bat-like, smelly and dusty. In the darkened basement you feel like they could suddenly come alive, turn on you in a swarm and leave you with no defences. They look menacing – partly because of the dimly-lit and enclosed environment, partly because of their resemblance to ...

The House of Juliet, Verona, Italy Love has an undeniable power. There’s a strength in the emotion that is indefinable and seems endless. It’s so strong that it can defeat logic, neutralise rational thought and influence decisions. In other words, it’s exactly what salespeople are looking for. Enter stage left, the House of Juliet in ...

How to make Italian pasta If someone had suggested making pasta to me previously, I would have reacted the same way as if someone had recommended getting a bank loan, going to a car dealership, buying a car, getting it registered and getting it insured just so I could drive down to the shops to ...

Mosaics in Ravenna, Italy Luca Barberini places the small piece of marble into place carefully but with the ease of an experienced artist. He reaches for another as he chats with me, the motions as natural as breathing. Centuries have passed since the first mosaic makers of Ravenna but the tradition lives on – right ...